THE Maya civilization developed around 3,000 years ago in Mesoamerica, and after flourishing during the so-called Classic period, it collapsed around 750–900 AD1. It has been specula ted2–6 that climate change may have played a part in this collapse. But efforts to reconstruct the last three millennia of Mesoamerican climate using palynological methods have met with equivocal success, because human-mediated deforestation has altered regional vegetation in ways that mimic climate shifts, making it difficult to discriminate between natural and anthropogenic changes7–15. Here we use temporal variations in oxygen isotope and sediment composition in a 4.9-m sediment core from Lake Chichancanab, Mexico, to reconstruct a continuous record of Holocene climate change for the central Yucatan peninsula. The interval between 1,300 and 1,100 yr BP (AD 800–1,000) was the driest of the middle to late Holocene epoch, and coincided with the collapse of Classic Maya civilization. This continuous climate proxy record thus provides evidence of climate deterioration in the Maya region during the terminal Classic period.

Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization

Author Posting. © Annual Reviews, 2007. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Annual Reviews for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 36 (2008): 601-647, doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.35.031306.140139.

/pdf/coastal-impacts-due-to-sea-level-rise-3e2h8eh3jm.pdf

Coastal Impacts Due to Sea-Level Rise

This book offers the first detailed comparative study of the seven best-documented early civilizations: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang China, the Aztecs and adjacent peoples in the Valley of Mexico, the Classic Maya, the Inka, and the Yoruba. Unlike previous studies, equal attention is paid to similarities and differences in their sociopolitical organization, economic systems, religion, and culture. Many of this study's findings are surprising and provocative. Agricultural systems, technologies, and economic behaviour turn out to have been far more diverse than was expected. These findings and many others challenge not only current understandings of early civilizations but also the theoretical foundations of modern archaeology and anthropology. The key to understanding early civilizations lies not in their historical connections but in what they can tell us about similarities and differences in human behaviour.

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/2002074052.pdf

Understanding early civilizations : a comparative study

Climate variability on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico) during the past 3500 years, and implications for Maya cultural evolution

http://faculty.wwu.edu/wallin/envr442/pdf_files/chase_etal_2011_lidar_archaeology_Mayan_landscape_Belize_J_Archaeology.pdf

Airborne LiDAR, archaeology, and the ancient Maya landscape at Caracol, Belize

In this paper we summarize more than a decade of interdisciplinary work at Calakmul, including (1) the mapping project, which has covered more than 30 km2; (2) the excavation project, which has uncovered major structures and tombs in the center of the city; (3) the epigraphic project, whose goal is to study the hieroglyphic texts and relate them to the archaeological evidence; (4) the analysis of the architecture, ceramics, and chipped stone to define sacred and secular activity areas and chronological stages; and (5) a focus on the ecology, hydrology, and paleoclimatology of Calakmul and its environs with the aim of understanding more fully its periods of development and decline.

Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico

Coba: A Classic Maya Metropolis

The ruins of the ancient city of Coba are situated in the northeastern sector of the Yucatan Peninsula at 87°40' longitude W and 20°30' latitude N. Part of the ruins are within the confines of present-day village of Coba, which is under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico. This chapter presents a description of the ecological setting of the Yucatan and highlights the complex nature of the geology, soil configuration, hydrography, flora, fauna, and climate of the Yucatan. The geologic structure of the Yucatan Peninsula is made up of the foreland of the folded mountains of northwestern Central America. The low northern portion of the peninsula is supported by an intrusive platform overlain with Pliocene calcareous rock, primarily limestone, marl, and gypsum. The ancient Maya regional center of Coba is located in the eastern sector and is characterized by an abundance of small depressions, hills, large lakes, and linear depressions.

Physical Geography of the Yucatan Peninsula

Sea level rose rapidly from the Last
Glacial Maximum (LGM, ~18,000 years
ago) until it stabilized about 7000 years
ago. A millennium later, the rudiments
of early civilizations appeared. However,
the factors that might have spurred the
first civilizations are a subject of debate,
with proposals ranging across many possibilities
from drought to the influence of
individual rulers.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2007EO150001

Emergence of complex societies after sea level stabilized

Biocultural systems adapt to global climate change through its regional manifestations. Subsistence customs are the cultural interface between regional climate and culture at large. Swidden horticulturalists in Campeche, Mexico report that dry April followed by early onset of the wet season enhances the productivity of upland tropical gardens, or milpas. To relate regional seasonality of moisture to global climate, growing season discharge for Mexico's Candelaria River from 1958 to 1990 was analyzed relative to global average temperature. Analysis of covariance revealed a statistically significant relationship (p < 0.001). Further analysis showed that hot global climate eliminates the dry season, which lowers milpa productivity by preventing burning of the slash. Cold global climate delays the wet season and planting, also at cost of productivity. Intermediate global temperature fosters optimal wet—dry season combinations. Productivity of milpas is therefore directly related to global climate through the intervening mechanism of seasonality of moisture. A regression model reflecting these findings is used to retrodict paleohydrology for the last 3000 years. The pattern of ascendancy and decline of ancient southern Maya lowland urban centers is reviewed in the perspective of changing hydrological conditions. The model indicates that fluorescence occurred with optimal balance of wet and dry season duration and catastrophes unfolded during extended wet or dry periods. We suggest that the southern Maya lowlands have had a precipitous record of urban development and collapse in part because of complex interactions of global climate and upland horticulture. The most productive conditions for milpa issue from an inherently unstable overlay of global climate on a relatively narrow band of partially developed karst (semikarst) geological formations.

A landscape analysis of the candelaria watershed in mexico: Insights into paleoclimates affecting upland horticulture in the southern yucatan peninsula semi-karst

William J. Folan

Papers

Calakmul: New Data from an Ancient Maya Capital in Campeche, Mexico

Coba: A Classic Maya Metropolis

Physical Geography of the Yucatan Peninsula

Emergence of complex societies after sea level stabilized

A landscape analysis of the candelaria watershed in mexico: Insights into paleoclimates affecting upland horticulture in the southern yucatan peninsula semi-karst